Thursday, May 10, 2007

"The Rolling Stones have asked to change the venue for a concert in Belgrade to spare hundreds of horses from enduring a potentially traumatic experience.

The July 14 concert was due to be held at the Serbian capital's Hippodrome racetrack until animal protection society ORCA complained the noise would traumatize the 300 horses kept in the nearby stables."

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

From the article:"China buys at least 70 percent of Sudan's most important export—oil. And, as Peter Brookes, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, now with the Heritage Foundation, notes: In Sudan, "China is building roads, bridges, an oil refinery, and a hydroelectric dam [along with] government offices and a new $20 million presidential palace" for the thriving General Bashir.It is now clear that the only way to stop the mass murders and rapes in Darfur—and now of the refugees in neighboring Chad—is to compel China to force Sudan to end the genocide.China's only acute vulnerability—as it becomes the most powerful nation in the world economically and politically—is the tarnishing of its coming glorification as the host of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing."

Monday, May 07, 2007

So I'll complete my enviro-posts with a quote from Sheryl Crow. She's evidently upset that folks misunderstood her toilet paper joke. However, when you make remarks like that, what do you expect? Others simply turned her joke into their joke.

All kidding aside, I would like to read a thoughtfully written article about environmental stewardship from a biblical perspective. I'll call my friend Rich and see what he has.

From Sheryl:

"First, I am deeply concerned over where we are as a nation. We are so blessed to live in a country where we enjoy so many rights that other countries cannot even begin to imagine. However, what terrifies me is not what we are ignoring about the state of our planet but the fact that we seem to have lost touch with our connection to the earth. We have risen to great heights of arrogance in our refusal to acknowledge that the earth is changing. We hold steadfast to our belief that nothing can happen to us as a people."

"It's in part a spiritual crisis," Gore told the crowd in the Convention Center at the American Institute of Architects national convention. "It's a crisis of our own self-definition — who we are. Are we creatures destined to destroy our own species? Clearly not."

So Al's concerned about our spiritual crisis. I remember the 80s when Al and Tipper feigned evangelical, anti-abortion fervor; Tipper went toe-to-toe with Frank Zappa over music censorship and labeling (Zappa was brilliant). They did what they had to do: winning their constituency in conservative Tennessee. Now Al is trying to capture a different audience, so he bows down to different gods.

"Apparently, saving the whales is more important than saving 5.5 billion people. Paul Watson, founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and famous for militant intervention to stop whalers, now warns mankind is “acting like a virus” and is harming Mother Earth.

Watson’s May 4 editorial asked the question “The Beginning of the End for Life as We Know it on Planet Earth?” Then he left no doubt about the answer. “We are killing our host the planet Earth,” he claimed and called for a population drop to less than 1 billion.

The commentary reminded readers that Watson had called humans a disease before and he wasn’t sorry. “I was once severely criticized for describing human beings as being the ‘AIDS of the Earth.’ I make no apologies for that statement,” the column continued.

Watson was invoking the worst of Robert Malthus, an English political economist who claimed that mankind was overpopulating the earth. That claimed first appeared in the late 1700s. Watson urged some solutions for mankind as part of a process to “need to re-wild the planet”:

· “No human community should be larger than 20,000 people and separated from other communities by wilderness areas.” New York, London, Paris, Moscow are all too big. Then again, so are Moose Jaw, Timbuktu and even Annapolis, Md.· “We need vast areas of the planet where humans do not live at all and where other species are free to evolve without human interference.”· “We need to radically and intelligently reduce human populations to fewer than one billion.”· “Sea transportation should be by sail. The big clippers were the finest ships ever built and sufficient to our needs. Air transportation should be by solar powered blimps when air transportation is necessary.”· At least Watson was generous and said people could still talk with one another across great distances. “Communication systems can link the communities,” he proclaimed from on high.

The Watson rant kept on going calling for everything from cutting down on the population of domesticated dogs and cats to cutting down on everything else in what he called “simplify, simplify, simplify.”

Watson essentially called for humans to return to primitive lifestyles. “We need to stop flying, stop driving cars, and jetting around on marine recreational vehicles. The Mennonites survive without cars and so can the rest of us.”

Yes, it's a big day for environmental "stories." We'll begin with a paper for the Optimum Population trust that declares:

"HAVING large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanour in the same way as frequent long-haul flights, driving a big car and failing to reuse plastic bags, says a report to be published today by a green think tank.

The paper by the Optimum Population Trust will say that if couples had two children instead of three they could cut their family's carbon dioxide output by the equivalent of 620 return flights a year between London and New York. "

So remember all the horrible environmental consequences when you're planning a family. Don't think of that precious little bundle of depravity as a heritage from the Lord; think of him as a threatening little mass of carbon dioxide output.

The Associated PressWELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A plucky Jack Russell terrier named George saved five children from two marauding pit bulls, but was so severely mauled in the fight that it had to be put down, its owner said Wednesday. George was playing with the group of children as they returned home from buying sweets at a neighborhood shop in the small North Island town of Manaia last Sunday when the two pit bulls appeared and lunged toward them, Allan Gay said.

"George was brave — he took them on and he's not even a foot high," Gay told The Associated Press. "He jumped in on them, he tried to keep them off.

"If it wasn't for George, those kids would have copped it."

One of the children, Richard Rosewarne, 11, was quoted in the Taranaki Daily News on Wednesday as saying George fought with the pit bulls to keep them off his 4-year-old brother, Darryl.

"George tried to protect us by barking and rushing at them, but they started to bite him — one on the head and the other on the back," Rosewarne said. "We ran off crying and some people saw what was happening and rescued George."

But George was so badly mauled that a veterinarian had to put him down, Gay said.South Taranaki District Council official Graham Young said the two pit bulls had been impounded, and likely would be put down because of the attack.

In New Zealand, owners of dogs judged to be too aggressive can be required to have them neutered and dogs involved in attacks are destroyed.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

"Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming."

About Me

Frumpy hausfrau from Alabama that is not her own, but belongs with body and soul, both in life and in death,to her faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all her sins with His precious blood, and has set her free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves her in such a way that without the will of her heavenly Father not a hair can fall from her head; indeed, all things must work together for her salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures her of eternal life and makes her heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

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Copyright 2006-2010 Lynne Wingard

"...knowing that you were ransomed from thefutile ways inherited from your forefathers,not with perishable things such as silver or gold,but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of alamb without blemish or spot." - I Peter 1:18-19